serted hall looked shadowy and mysterious as they passed through
it, the pale moonlight casting weird shapes across its walls. Blanche
caught Marjory's sleeve. "Look!" she whispered, pointing to a window
where something like an arm and hand, with fingers outstretched, was
waving up and down.

"It's only the branch of a tree," Marjory whispered back.

Everything looked so eerie and unfamiliar in the moonlit darkness that
Blanche began to wish she had not come; but as the expedition had been
her suggestion from the first, she felt in honour bound to proceed.

Up the stairs they went, and round the gallery. Not a sign of anything
unusual did they discover. There was no light, no sound of any kind.
Something flitted across Blanche's face; she gave a little stifled
scream.

"Oh! what can that be?" she panted.

Marjory turned and held up the candle. It came again, and she saw what
it was.

"It's only a bat," she said reassuringly; "it won't hurt you."

"A bat!" echoed Blanche. "Oh, how horrible! They bite, don't they?"

"Oh no, they are quite harmless. Dear little soft things they are when
you see them in the daylight, although they aren't pretty."

"O Marj, I don't like it; you won't let it come near me, will you?" And
Blanche clung to her friend.

"No, you needn't be frightened; I'll keep it away."

Marjory could not exactly understand Blanche's fears, but she saw that
they were real. She could see nothing to be afraid of in a tiny little
bat, but the feeling that she was able to protect some one weaker than
herself made her very tender towards her friend.

"We'll go back if you like," she whispered.

"No, no," replied Blanche breathlessly; "let's go on, now we've come so
far."

On they went. They passed the door of the room which contained the old
chest. Nothing was to be seen; but, turning a sharp corner at the end of
one passage leading to another which was apparently a blind alley, they
stopped suddenly.

There before them, at the end of this passage, was a faint seam of
light, hardly perceptible. There it was, looking as if it came from
under a door, but they knew that no door was there. Where could it come
from? They looked all round, but could find no clue to the mystery.
Marjory shaded the candle with her hand, in case the light might in some
way be reflected from it; but no--there was the straight narrow seam,
shining as before.

They crept along the passage until they stood in front of the wall